Erling Haaland is such a prolific forward, any manager would crave to have him in their team. His statistics since his Dortmund days speak for the man.
In his debut season at Man City, his goal scoring exploits have been very impressive having already netted 31 times from 27 games in all competitions.
That said, criticisms have been thrown at the burly striker. Former Newcastle winger Dietmar Hamann is one man who is not convinced by the the Norwegian’s general play.
“Now you have got a player who a lot of the time in their matches hardly takes part, it’s almost like playing with ten men. I don’t care how many goals he scores or how many hatricks he scores, you need to see how many goals the team scores.” Hamann said.
Should Pep Guardiola be worried about Haaland’s performance? If one is to consider Man City’s game against Tottenham last weekend, maybe he should. Haaland failed to register a single shot or any touch inside the Spurs’ box. He also had the fewest number of passes (16) for a player who started the game.
Former Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher apportioned blame to the striker’s teammates. He said: “Haaland’s teammates could not find him in goalscoring areas.” Carragher went on to question whether the forward had regrets over joining Man City.
For Dani Serrano of El Nacional, he thinks the 22-year old is “angry at Pep Guardiola and could even trigger a departure as Madrid expressed interest. This may not be realistic currently given the Norwegians four-and-half-years contract that has a 200m pound release close that can only be triggered in 2024 .
All said, Haaland is not Guardiola’s type and he may struggle to fit in his structure though it’s the manager’s obligation to fit a player in his system.
